Exhibitions
BIAS
October 2021
Can understanding human bias help build more ethical AI? Or can understanding machine bias help build more equitable societies? What can a deeper look at bias teach us about ourselves? BIAS: BUILT THIS WAY was an exploration of preferences, prejudices and digital equity.
SYSTEMS
JULY 2021
SYSTEMS is a unique, limited-edition publication, designed and produced by Science Gallery Dublin. It marks the evolution of an exhibition we had been planning to showcase in person - this COVID-adapted exhibition-in-a-box is a reimagined way of exploring and untangling the many visible and invisible systems that surround us.
IN THESE STRANGE TIMES
March 2021
IN THESE STRANGE TIMES is an evolving series created in response to the pandemic. It features a new podcast series with cutting-edge scientists and artists, a collaboration with conceptual illustrator Staselė Jakunskaitė, and a newly commissioned artwork by Multiplay, installed in the our windows, facing out onto Pearse St for public view through glass.
SPEED OF SCIENCE
November 2020
How does your immune system respond to a vaccine? How does community immunity work? And would you wear an outfit that maintains physical distancing for you? In this exhibition, specially developed with the support of Pfizer, we examine the world we live in now, and what the world could look like in the future.
INVISIBLE
13.03.20 - 31.05.20
With 95% of the universe a mystery, what role do artists and scientists have in unravelling and understanding the unknown? How can we begin to look for something that we can’t even define? INVISIBLE highlights the critical role of science, art and philosophy in imagining the unseen and questioning the invisible.
PLASTIC: CAN’T LIVE WITH IT CAN’T LIVE WITHOUT IT
25.10.19 - 09.02.20
Plastic has great power, and with great power comes great responsibility. It has changed our daily lives and our environment more than any other material. The unsustainability of our relationship with plastic is well documented, but to stop using plastic is not an option. Its use has revolutionised industrial design, and more essentially, modern medicine relies on plastic so heavily that even the most basic medical procedures would be unimaginable without it.
PERFECTION
21.06.19 – 06.10.19
Perfection is a bit perplexing. It can be exact numbers, balanced symmetry and precise engineering. But it can also be an obsession, a deception and a way of thinking. Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin’s exhibition PERFECTION is a creative collision of scientific experimentation and artistic expression.
OPEN LABS
15.03.19 - 03.06.19
Open Labs is part exhibition, part experiment — showcasing DIY culture across design, research, technology and activism. The identity for open labs explores the experimental and collaborative nature of people engaging with art and science.
INTIMACY
19.10.18 - 24.02.19
What is intimacy, and can it be quantified, optimised, or commodified? Will technology compromise the future of human connection, or bring us all together in new and exciting ways? In INTIMACY, we explore what it means to be connected. Society has become hyperconnected, but just because you’re connected, it doesn’t necessarily mean it’s intimate and just because you’re intimate, it doesn’t mean you’re connected. If we are more together than ever, then why are we seeing higher reports of loneliness and anxiety?
LIFE AT THE EDGES
22.06.18 — 30.09.18
Harsh environments are laboratories and workshops for the researchers, artists and designers in LIFE AT THE EDGES. From arctic expeditions to deep sea discoveries, this exhibition is about exploring frontiers and limits, and boldly pushing the boundaries of space, humanity, technology, biology, and determination.
FAKE
01.03.18 — 03.06.18
From fake meat to fake emotions, if faking it gets the job done, who cares? From biomimicry to forged documents, from scandals to substitutes — when is authenticity essential, when is copying cool, and what is the boundary between a fakery faux-pas and a really fantastic FAKE?
IN CASE OF EMERGENCY
12.10.17 - 11.02.18
What’s the difference between a collapse, a downfall, and a downright apocalypse? How will it all end, and why do we love to wonder? Ice or fire, zombies or bombs? Out with a bang or a whimper? And can we do anything to stop the decline? IN CASE OF EMERGENCY explores…
SOUND CHECK
09.06.17 - 24.09.17
Break out your old mix tapes, swing your way to melodic bliss or rock up to our NOISE STUDIO to make your own synth. SOUND CHECK: MAKE IT, PLAY IT at Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin is a noisy cacophony that will make your hair stand on end and your stomach vibrate!
HUMANS NEED NOT APPLY
10.02.17 – 21.05.17
In an automated world, will it be time to put humans out to pasture? Are we hurtling together towards a leisure-time utopia or robot-tended human zoos? Will the notion of work transform completely if machines really can do everything better, faster and for longer?
DESIGN AND VIOLENCE
14.10.16 – 22.01.17
Violence is identified here as both deliberate harm caused to a person or thing, and as a byproduct or unintended consequence. Violence may occur in spectacular outbursts in other places, in explosions and civil unrest — but as this exhibition shows, it underpins the normal order of things in the places we live, too. The products we buy and the systems in which we participate may cause harm elsewhere and out of sight.
SEEING
24.06.16 - 25.09.16
Is vision just one way to see? How do our brains interpret what’s in front of our eyes? How do machines understand what they’re looking at, and will they change how we look at the world?
FIELD TEST
11.03.16 - 05.06.16
Make hay while the sun shines, or when the sensors say? Will plant and agrifood research innovate to meet global consumption, or will farms change into factories, food forests or even theme parks?
TRAUMA
20.11.15 – 21.02.16
How does trauma affect the brain, the body, the national psyche, or all three? How do buildings, bodies, artworks and stories record the traumas of our past? How do we bounce back after a trauma, and how is our understanding of trauma’s lasting effect changing?
SECRET
07.08.15 – 01.11.15
From government surveillance to Hollywood spoilers, everyone has a secret. How do scientists, hackers, spies, journalists, psychologists, criminals, companies and governments approach this new world of secrets? From Easter eggs to cryptocurrencies, puzzles to politics, SECRET asks what needs to be be revealed, and what should remain hidden.
LIFELOGGING
13.02.15 - 17.04.15
From critical to creative, LIFELOGGING asks ‘where do we go from here’ and question whether we can record and analyse happiness, beauty and aesthetics the same way we record footsteps and heartbeats. This exhibition will explore novel methods for capturing data, for visualising, and for analysing the insights that new data affords us about ourselves and society.
BLOOD
24.10.14 – 23.01.15
Our human preoccupation with blood runs deep, and as a species we’ve had plenty of time to prod and poke, paint and proselytise about blood. So what remains? What mystery persists about blood, and how does this exhibition probe it? Why are we still interested in blood?
STRANGE WEATHER: FORECASTS FROM THE FUTURE
18.07.14 – 05.10.14
We are obsessed with the weather. It is a powerful, shared daily experience, offering us an immediate talking point with which to engage our fellow citizens. Yet when we talk about climate change the sense of guilt or powerlessness is enough to kill the conversation…
FAT LAB
16.05.14 – 29.06.14
Has fat got a reputation it doesn't deserve? Do you sit, slouch or sleep more than you stand stroll or sprint? Do you have to be thin to be fit? What are the fads and myths of fat? From health and survival to vanity and gossip -- it's time to embrace this delicious molecule that is essential to life yet a contributing factor to so many deaths.
FAIL BETTER
02.02.14 – 27.04.14
The goal of FAIL BETTER was to open up a public conversation about failure, particularly the instructive role of failure, as it relates to very different areas of human endeavour. Rather than simply celebrating failure, which can come at great human, environmental and economic cost, we want to open up a debate on the role of failure in stimulating creativity: in learning, in science, engineering and design.
GROW YOUR OWN…
25.10.13 – 19.01.14
GROW YOUR OWN… is a new exhibition created by Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin that invites you to consider some of the potentially ground-breaking applications and uncertain implications of synthetic life. Tackling the provocative questions that designing life raises, GROW YOUR OWN... gives you the opportunity to help shape future discussions around synthetic biology - an emerging approach to genetic engineering, bringing together engineers, scientists, designers, artists and biohackers to design ‘living machines’.
ILLUSION
11.07.13 – 29.09.13
Should you always believe what you see right in front of you? Can you really trust your senses? Has technology made things clearer or has it muddied the waters between reality and fiction? And is anything really as it seems?
RISK LAB
02.05.13 – 06.06.13
Why does the house always win? Is it better to do business with a bookie or a banker? How healthy is it to have a healthy appetite for risk? As part of Science Gallery’s LAB IN THE GALLERY series, RISK LAB examines the psychology and mathematics underpinning the risks that surround every aspect of our lives, and our ability to assess and understand those risks. From bad driving to the lotto, from real estate to smoking, humans find it tricky to evaluate risk. How do emotions, scenarios, or media skew our assessment of the odds? Is it possible to recalibrate our perceptions of risk?
OSCILLATOR
08.02.13 – 14.04.13
What oscillates? From swinging pendulums to throbbing beats and harmonics, oscillations are repetitive variations from one state to another that occur usually over time. Found in human-made systems and in physical, biological, and informational processes, they can arise, either by design or by accident. Sometimes they’re a critical component, essential to the correct function of a system, other times they might be a curiosity or a nuisance, or even a catastrophic force.
GAME: THE FUTURE OF PLAY
15.11.12 – 20.01.13
A free exhibition featuring everything from work by world-renowned game designers such as Eric Zimmerman and architect Nathalie Pozzi to hacks on old favourites like Lunar Trails by Seb Lee-Delisle. GAME offers you the chance to get directly involved in the world's most compelling game play.
MAGICAL MATERIALS
15.09.12 – 14.10.12
What makes a material magical? An ability to change shape before your eyes, to turn from a liquid to a solid or to be one of the lightest materials on earth and yet also one of the strongest? MAGICAL MATERIALS explores the properties of some of the world’s most mysterious materials, giving you an opportunity to investigate and experiment at the cutting edge of material science.
HACK THE CITY
22.06.12 – 08.09.12
The future evolution of cities is critically important, as we are becoming an increasingly urban species. Currently more than half of the world’s population lives in towns and cities. This trend is expected to continue. Of the estimated 8 billion people who will live in the world by 2025-2030, 5 billion will live in cities. Yet the majority of our city infrastructures are based on inherited historical layouts and systems.
HAPPY?: TAKE A SECOND LOOK
27.04.12 - 03.06.12
A free LAB IN THE GALLERY that explores your happiness through real experiments, celebrating 50 years of research at Trinity College Dublin’s school of psychology as part of the Dublin city of science 2012 festival.
EDIBLE : THE TASTE OF THINGS TO COME
10.02.12 - 06.04.12
Who knew that a forkful of food could have such a far reaching effect? Science Gallery’s first foray into food, EDIBLE, tackles this vast topic from the perspective of the eater, probing how our actions as eaters shape what is sown, grown, harvested and consumed.
SURFACE TENSION:THE FUTURE OF WATER
21.10.11 - 20.01.12
The future of water is the subject of tension. Water is both disposable and sacred, a muse for artists and a necessity for life – a source of healing and of conflict. The Earth has abundant water, but only a very small proportion is available for human use. How should this be managed and sustained, and what would a water-scarce future look like?
ELEMENTS: THE BEAUTY OF CHEMISTRY
15.07.11 - 23-09.11
ELEMENTS invites you to see Science Gallery's latest exhibition go off with a bang as we explore the beauty of the elements, the design icon that is the periodic table and stir up some reactions in the atomic kitchen. Science Gallery and Trinity College Dublin's School of Chemistry present an interactive exhibition exploring the beauty of chemistry.
HUMAN+: THE FUTURE OF OUR SPECIES
15.04.11 - 24.06.11
Science Gallery’s latest flagship exhibition HUMAN+ invites you to consider a future of augmented abilities, authored evolution, new strategies for survival and non-human encounters through a range of installations and laboratories exploring the future of our species. The exhibition opened at Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin, on April 15th and runs until June 2011.
MEMORY LAB: HAVE I SEEN YOU BEFORE?
11.03.11 - 08.04.11
MEMORY LAB, a month-long LAB IN THE GALLERY experience at Science Gallery, Trinity College Dublin, invites the public to take part in a range of real, scientific experiments into how we remember or why we forget.